Kia has shown its much-anticipated new EV5, an all-electric SUV that's about the same size as the Korean brand's own - highly successful - Sportage. Kia says that this new EV has been designed "to meet the needs of millennial families."
Launches in China first
The EV5 has been shown off at the Chengdu motor show in China, and for the moment that's the only market that the new Kia has been confirmed for. However, it's extremely likely (you can consider it pretty well a dead cert) that the EV5 will be launched in Europe and Ireland in due course.
The EV5 takes some pretty obvious design cues from the larger EV9 seven-seat SUV, which is just about to go on sale. It uses the same 'Opposites United' styling language, which tries to mix soft surfacing with hard edges.
"The Kia EV5 was created to redefine the compact SUV genre with a form shaped by Kia's unique design philosophy 'Opposites United,'" said Karim Habib, Executive Vice President and Head of Kia Global Design Center. "At every stage, Kia's designers have worked closely with their engineering colleagues to create a holistic solution for sustainable mobility. As a result, the EV5 sets a new standard for design, performance and practicality while providing new levels of driver enjoyment and user experience."
Visibility and practicality
In particular, Habib highlights the pushed-back shape of the D-pillar (that's the last one before the boot) which "further highlights the EV5's family-friendly practicality, accentuating the spaciousness of the rear seat and the trunk while providing a wide field of visibility."
Up front, there's an evolution of Kia's traditional 'Tiger Face' grille, along with daytime running lights that are supposed to mimic the shapes of galactic constellations, in what Kia calls 'Signature Star Map Lighting.'
Around the back, there's a prominent skid plate under the back bumper, meant to show off the EV5's off-road potential, while the car will be launched with ten colour options: Snow White Pearl; Clear White; Starry Night Black; Magma Red; Ivory Silver; Frost Blue; Iceberg Green; Tide Blue; and Shale Grey, while there's also a matte colour; Ivory Silver.
At 4.6 metres long, the EV5 is quite a large car, and the 2.7-metre wheelbase should ensure a roomy interior, but impressively Kia seems to have kept the car's weight down. The official Chinese figures show that it weighs 1,870kg - considerably lighter than rivals such as Volkswagen's ID.4, but that weight may alter when it's measured under European conditions, of course.
Armchair-like seats
Inside, the cabin takes some fairly unsurprising influences from the current EV6, the Sportage, and the EV9 but there are some really interesting features. Look at the way the air vents are sunk deep into the dashboard, while there's a really intriguing detail where the leather upholstery from the front passenger seat seams to wrap up and over the centre console, almost creating an unbroken surface between the two front seats, and making them look more like deep armchairs.
There's ambient lighting with up to 64 colour choices (including ten shades specifically recommended by Kia's styling team) and thankfully there are still physical heating and air conditioning controls, although even these have been dramatically slimmed-down.
The on-screen graphics of the big digital displays have also been updated and look exceptionally slick, and it's now very hard to see quite where the driver's display ends and the main infotainment screen begins.
There's no official word yet on electric motor power nor battery capacity for the European market, but you'd have to assume a one-charge range of at least 500km to keep the EV5 competitive with the likes of the ID.4 and the Tesla Model Y.
Kia will be having a special 'Kia EV Day' event in October, and we should get some more details about the Euro-spec EV5, and potential on-sale dates, then.